Holy Land Alumni Tour

Tuesday, June 7, day 4 on the ground in Galilee

Our day began at Bethsaida, an ancient fishing village from which Jesus called Peter, Andrew, Nathaniel, and Phillip. Chip Bouzard was so excited to share the story of this place. He literally bounded up the path to the archeological site that he and several Wartburg students have helped explore. The first part we came to was the oldest part. Bethsaida has been inhabited from about 2000 BCE. What we saw first was the city gate, a street, and walls of buildings dating from the Iron Age around the time of the prophet Isaiah and possibly even King David Very impressive to see as well as to learn about Wartburg's role. And so much fun enjoying Chip's excitement for this place.

As we moved into the "New Testament" portion of the dig it was exciting to see the house of a fisherman, based on the tools and equipment found in the house. Who knows, maybe it was the home of one of the disciples? Then we came to the road. In our path were the actual stones from road that was in use at the time of Jesus. We knew he had been in this place and had walked these streets. Could we be walking on the very path he had once taken? Maybe yes!
We moved on to other archeological sites at Caesarea Phillipi and Tel Dan. Banias Springs which was the location for Caesarea Phillipi is one of the sources of the Jordan River.

We ended our touring for the day with a drive through the Golan Heights. Before the 1967 war this was part of Syria. Now it is part of the territory Israel has claimed as necessary to keep for their security. Prominent features of this land include several mine fields, a barbed wire fence backed up by what appears to be an electrified fence, and a strong military presence--both UN peace keepers and Israeli military. Though there had been an incident at the Syrian border just days before, we had no problems passing through this area on our return to our Kibbutz.

Jack Dahlby '67